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The Heretical Mystery of the Lash

01-30-2014, 12:17 AM

Every one of the Kindred has the Beast and the Man; the Beast's passions and hungers ends up ruling the Man more often than not. However, there is a small number of Dragons that point to history and point out that men have domesticated beasts for thousands of years. Isn't it only proper that the Kindred get started on taming their own monsters?

This viewpoint is seen as rather vague and, well, pointless by many of the other members of the Ordo; they see it as corroboration in their own cursed nature, and that's just not the point. There is also the minor detail that it can make entire Still, some Dragons still follow it, as it has been shown to get results, however minor they may be.

Coils of the LashStriking through Bonds of Blood •
The flow of Vitae through the veins of one of the Kindred betrays the fact that the Beast is a pack animal, who pack just so happens to be the Vampire's sire and childer. As such, ithurts all the more when the Beast is taught to hunt its own. A Dragon with this Scale adds their Blood Sympathy bonus when lashing out.

Introducing the Leash••
The Dragon's first goal is introduce the concept of "restraint" to the Beast; a daunting task, but one that is not insurmountable. Whenever the Dragon successfully lashes out, they may choose to either gain the Sated condition or remove an instance of the Tempted condition instead of inflicting a condition on their victim. If they spend 1 Vitae while lashing out, they gain the benefits of this Coil in addition to rather than instead of inflicting a condition on their victim.

Holding the Monster Back•••
The Dragon, of course, knows that sometimes letting your Beast out to play is not a good idea; as such, they hold onto the leash quite strictly. If the Dragon responds to another Kindred's lashing out by flight, they may choose to gain the Tempted condition instead of the condition associated with the aspect of the Beast that their attacker attempted to use. This option costs 1 Willpower if the aggressor's Blood Potency is higher than theirs.

Collar LikeA Trophy••••
The Dragon spends some time teaching the Beast a few tricks; it might be primitive, but it has a certain cunning. The Dragon gains an additional Aspect of the Beast:

The Starving Beast: This aspect represents the Beast-as-Hunger; it is the part of the Beast that rushes to the Dragon's bite, waiting for the sweet taste of blood to flow down to its needy gullet. It inflicts either the Swooning or the Scarred condition on their victim. The dice pool for this Aspect is Blood Potency + Coil rank.

This Coil costs 1WP to use on Kindred; it is, however, free to use on humans.

Monsters Hunt in Packs •••••
The Dragon teaches the Beast one final trick; dominance as the leader of the pack. Whenever the Dragon successfully lashes out, their victim gains a First Stage Blood Bond to the Dragon, which lasts as long as the condition inflicted by the Dragon does. Kindred may resist this Scale as if they had drunk only 1 Vitae from the Dragon; this amount of virtual Vitae increases to 2 if the Dragon has a higher Blood Potency or a lower Humanity than the victim. If both those conditions are true, then the amount of "vitae" consumed is 3.

This coil does not allow the Dragon to deepen a Blood Bond by lashing out, and does not inflict the cumulative penalty to rolls against forming a Blood Bond that would be gained through feeding off them.

Scales of the LashTeaching the Beast to SpeakRequires: Holding the Monster Back
The Beast can be awfully difficult to teach, but it can be taught. One lesson that is surprisingly difficult to teach is the idea behind language. But the Dragon has succeeded. Upon attaining this Coil, the Dragon may lash out with a turn of phrase; by spending 3 Vitae over the course of drafting the message, the Dragon may lash out against any Kindred that they are capable of communicating with, as long as they are within the range of the Dragon's Blood Sympathy. This Coil has been used through everything from telegrams to sarcastic poetry to smoke signals to text messages.
While drafting the message, the Dragon rolls the appropriate dice pool, records the number of successes, and pays for any Coils they would like to add to the recorded lashing out. The first time the recipient of the message reads or interprets it, they must respond as if they had just been lashed out against by the Dragon, using the recorded successes. Unless the Dragon is either physically present or the recipient also possesses this Coil, they may only respond to the Dragon's Predatory Aura through Flight; in the latter case, they must respond to the Dragon's attempt in kind, though their cost when responding is only a single Vitae. The Dragon has, after all, opened the proper channels.
Messages imbued with Teaching the Beast to Speak remain effective for a number of days equal to the Dragon's (Blood Potency). Yeah... yeah. Yeah. I don't know where this came from. The Coils probably need to be rearranged, though.

Any sort of comments would be welcome; I have no idea what kinda scales to give this thing.

I like it. You've done a good job capturing the progression and synergy of Coils while sticking tightly to a theme and goal.

One note though. Teaching the Beast to Speak feels more like a Scale than it does a full Coil, what with requiring a strict procedure, carrying risks and going a little tangent to the core progression. Instead try asking the question "What does the Coil seek to become?" Every Coil has an end goal, Ascendants seek to 'ascend' into the sun. Viovodes run through the power of their blood. So what's the lash's end goal? It's final evolution?

The fifth coil should get close to that state, but not quite make it. Giving characters a taste of success, but with room to refine and improve.

Comment

Alright, there is now a proper 5th Coil; as long as someone is subject to a condition inflicted by you lashing out, they have a weak Blood Bond to you, due to you having cowed their Beast into considering you its leader.

Comment

That's great, feels more like a natural extension of the Coil. I might even go so far as to remove the resistance roll (because they already failed to resist lashing out) and make the severity of he bond based on the BP/Humanity Factors. (i.e One level of blood bond base, +1 if the Dragon's BP or Humanity is higher, +2 if both are higher).

Also yes, Scales require procedures. In the case of Beast text it'd probably be something like, "Create a special ink made with your own Vitae, with which you pen the document".

Comment

I'd say that creating a Vinculum without drinking the Vitae is a very VERY powerful and dangerous effect. In all other circumstances, even when Dominated, you must actually drink the Vitae in order to be blood bound. Someone might see that, someone might realize what happened. Lashing Out is something that can be done subtly and without any witnesses, and this can be used by a monstrous and old Kindred to completely enslave the populace of a city, with hardly any possiblity of resisting it (nobody would even know what happened). There is a reason why Vinculum has to happen over 3 distinct occasions, instead of just force-feeding someone 3 Vitae in a single go...

That said, I DO like the general idea behind it, but I'd limit it to a stage 2 Vinculum at most, in any case.

Even if it does last only for a few days, it is still very very easy to politely ask someone who loves you deeply during that time to actually drink from you and confirm the Vinculum forever...

Comment

Keep in mind though this bond only lasts as long as the condition does, and the condition can be deliberately resolved by the victim (albeit by risking a breaking point). Don't get me wrong, it's still very potent, but it's not quite instant Vinculum.

Still, stage 3 might be a bit much. Perhaps something like: "Success inflicts stage one Blood Bond on the victim for as long as the condition lasts, increase this to stage two if the Dragon rolled an exceptional success. If the Dragon's Blood Potency is higher than his victims, increase the Blood Bond an additional step."

So full Vinculum would only be possible with an Exceptional Success AND higher Blood Potency.

Comment

I'm pretty sure it doesn't let you increase the stage from my reading of it. That 3 vitae thing is the penalty for number of vitae ingested I believe from my understanding. So none of that even applies as written. Its not automatic, its only first stage, and gives a penalty to resisting it dependent on the dragon's blood potency and humanity

Comment

That's its current version, yes. I'm making the case that it might be a) A little dice heavy, as the target will already have rolled vs Lashing Out. and b) Could be both cool and potent if it could inflict a higher stage of Bond under the correct conditions.

This is a 5th tier after all. Up there with (almost) daywalking and neigh unlimited siring.

Comment

To be perfectly frank, my original 5th tier was the ability to feed via lashing out; you could restore Vitae through fulfilling your Beast's hunger for dominance instead of their hunger for blood.

It would deal Bashing to humans, due to psychosomatic wounds (old wounds open up, their skin bruises where you grabbed their arm, their nose begins bleeding, etc), and you would get 1 Vitae per 2 Bashing you deal. At a base it would deal 2 Bashing or take 1 Vitae, but would double if they aren't currently suffering a Condition due to your Lashing Out (breaking the unbroken is the sweetest meat.)

I have decided, after some thought, that I don't really feel happy on these forums. I might decide to come back to post. Who knows - but right now, I'm gone.